The clouds above were a maelstrom—a gigantic swirling vortex so thick it looked almost liquid in formation, like a pot of melted grey plastic being stirred counter clockwise. Jake stared into the dull green eye of it, now directly above him. There was a moment of calm; the wind stopped howling in his ears, and the dust settled. It was a beautiful sight to behold—almost as beautiful as the awe-inspiring yellow and orange mushroom cloud that helped spawn it days earlier. Jake would be pulled up into it, and become part of the sky. This would be a good way to die, to be carried up into the heavens and reunited with wife and son.
I forgive you, Mandy. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better friend… I’m sorry I lost Nicholas.
The center of it passed on, and the wind resumed screaming in his ears. Jake sat up, and gravel pelted his face. The pieces became larger, hitting his battered body with greater speed and force. Something black erupted from the earth less than a hundred yards away. It reached up, twisting into the clouds, puncturing the great green eye half a mile over Jake’s head.
The massive tornado shaft began its slow dance, shifting to the left, and churning to the right. A second column appeared next to it, a partner to share the floor of clouds with. Jake had seen far too much in the last few days. He closed his eyes, blinding himself from the unimaginable power, and waited for his limbs to be torn apart.
The sound was too much to bear; he clamped his hands over his ears, and the noise worked its way in, scraping at his brain, shaking his body. Something smacked into his arm with enough force to throw him back over onto his hands and knees. Jake opened his eyes a crack and saw a black foot scratching the ground. Not a foot… a hoof.
Hayden was yelling something up on Trixie’s back, but Jake couldn’t hear what it was over the roar. Against all better judgement, Jake reached up and took the man’s hand. Hayden was strong; he pulled Jake up in one fast motion, and the horse was away.
A third twister had materialized behind them; Jake was lying on his stomach across Trixie’s neck, bouncing uncomfortably and wheezing for breath, but his sight hadn’t been impaired. The tornadoes were spreading out, picking up more debris, and thickening at their bases. They were whipping up the remains of an already destroyed world, rearranging the ruin into an even more unrecognizable nightmare. Jake saw the thirty-foot drainage pipe they’d taken cover in rip up from the ground. It twisted in the main column like a piece of liquorice, and then it was spat out into the churning wall of another. I made Nicholas crawl into that thing with me… I thought he would be safe in there.
The boy’s face appeared at that moment from behind Hayden’s body. His blue eyes were terror-filled, his blonde hair whipped in the dust-filled air and struck his cheeks. Jake could see his arms wrapped around Hayden’s waist, the little fingers burrowed into the shirt of his rescuer.
“Thank you,” Jake gasped into the horse’s sweaty hide. “Thank you.”
The tornadoes were gone, headed southeast to merge with other monster twisters and blacker storm cells. This storm had passed, but Hayden knew there would be more; the grey sky was streaked with odd pinkish colors, as if the underside of the heavens had been scratched open and left to bleed. Hayden was lost. He couldn’t find his farm in the aftermath. The landscape had changed too much for him to recognize a single thing. There were no more forests, not a single tree left standing. The roads running between fields and towns had been torn up and flattened over. All that remained was ground… lifeless, grey earth.
Hayden let the reins droop in his hands. The horse moved off to the left on her own accord. There hadn’t even been time to put a saddle on Trixie. Jake was still slumped over on his stomach in front of him, unconscious, and possibly dead. Hayden hadn’t checked for at least a quarter of an hour. Nicholas’s grip on his shirt had weakened, but Hayden knew he was still awake. The boy was whimpering softly into his back. They carried on that way for another half hour until Hayden saw a dark rise off in the distance. A hill.
He should’ve let Trixie find the shelter without his assistance; she was far more capable of smelling her way home than he was. Home was an even a bigger disaster than when he’d left it. Both shelter doors were missing, the frame had torn away as well, taking great chunks of concrete foundation along with it. Smoke was trickling out from the yawning darkness inside.
Hayden wrapped a steadying arm around Nicholas and the two slipped silently off of Trixie’s back. Jake made a groaning noise, and Hayden pulled him down gently to the ground. He was mumbling something between his swollen, cracked lips. Hayden leaned in closer to hear. “You… You saved him. You saved my son.”
Hayden shook his head. “Saved him for what? There’s nothing left. The shelter’s been destroyed.”
Jake craned his head towards the opening. “Looks like… like a fucking tornado tore the place up.” He tried to laugh, and coughed something black up over his lips. A bit more leaked from the hole in his cheek and soaked the dirt. It must have hurt like hell to laugh like that, Hayden thought, but Jake continued snorting through his nostrils anyway.
His mind’s finally caught up with the rest of him… totally wrecked.
Hayden left him there and went towards the shelter. Nicholas grabbed his hand along the way and the two walked in together, waving away the smoke still clinging to the dirt ceiling. The fuel for the gas lanterns must have upset. It wouldn’t have taken much to create a spark—possibly a lightning strike— in all that wind and flying debris. Most of the supplies he’d gathered were gone or burned to a crisp. The boxes of food had been picked up and sucked out into the fields. Hayden found half of his comforter stuck underneath Trixie’s overturned water trough, the other half had burned away. He spread it out on the ground and started tossing what little left there was. Thirteen unbroken bottles of water, four tins of beans, two tins of Chef Boyardee’s Mini Ravioli, and a big can of Campbell’s mushroom soup. That was it for food and water—enough for five or six days, maybe a full week if the cackling idiot outside died during the night.
Nicholas presented him with one half of the can opener. The plastic turning dial had melted away. “Thanks, bud.” Hayden took the metal piece and shoved it into his back pocket; at least it was the half with the can puncture part on the end.
“Are we gonna sleep in here again tonight?”
Hayden looked around them. There was no straw for them to curl up in, no water for his horse to drink. The doors were gone, and nothing stood between them and the radioactive elements. “Just one more night, Nicholas. We’ll stay one more night.”
“And then what? You gonna take me home tomorrow?”
Hayden listened as Jake’s snorts turned to mournful cries. “No, I won’t be taking you home. That place is gone. We’re going to try and find a new place to live.”
“Will my Mom and Dad be there?”
Hayden ran his big hand through the boy’s hair without answering. He smiled at him, kissed his forehead, and then went about the rest of his work; gathering up the meagre remains of their supplies for what would likely be a very long journey.
Chapter 12
“I want to have a fire.”
Hayden looked over at Jake as if the man had lost his mind, and then remembered that he already had. “There’s been enough fires.”